Is it April 1st already?!?!?! W-O-W!
Time really moves so fast when you are busy. Yet I have never felt bored in my entire life. Go figure what that means.

Anyway, I do not plan on pulling any pranks nor jokes today lest I start a fight in our tiny household. I do intend to start on some things this month which hopefully, once and for all, I can accomplish and finish!

Now, even if we don’t have spring here as a season, I know there are a lot of families who are doing a bit of spring cleaning in their households. Ours included! With the kids in summer break and all of us the house are almost always at home, we need to keep ourselves busy so that boredom cannot get to us otherwise the kids will bicker non-stop.

So I’m busy making a list in my head of things we need to clean, organize or get rid of with the one week left we have with our cleaning lady. I want to transfer the towels and rugs in the dirty kitchen area cabinet and throw out more toys. We have a lot of toys. Books too – activity books which are filled with doodles and done with.

Of course, every summer I get new sets of undergarments for ourselves. We do this yearly – mine would be simple cotton ones, not the Occhi Verdi culotte I saw over at StyleHive.com, I choose comfort over style

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And my patience and temper is being tested to its highest limit.

Matthew had his last day at school yesterday and save for the Recognition Day on Wednesday (I got a letter he will be receiving an award), he is home 24 hours, 7 days a week, starting today.

I’m searching for classes that can keep him really busy. I also need to see if Martha is ready for pre-school. Summer classes for her won’t start until May though. That’s the disadvantage of being in the province, special classes are far and few. We dedicate an hour each day something educational like coloring books, singing nursery rhymes, me pointing colors – so far all she knows are the colors pink, red, and black and she says that for every color there is.

I really need to learn how to drive. Matthew told me yesterday, “Mommy, if you knew how to drive, I can take as many lessons as I want. Kasi di na tyo sasabay ke Dad.” Hmm, he didn’t take into consideration that we don’t have a second car, we can’t enroll him to the five classes he wants this summer (guitar, intensive reading, advanced speech, basketball and swimming) not unless he doesn’t want to be enrolled next schoolyear. LOL.

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Finally, after living here for almost a year, we got to take the kids horseback riding. We went to the horseback area beside Taal Vista after Sonya’s to take the kids – I have to say, on record, that if it weren’t for the kids, I won’t even dare going there. But the kids had fun. Since we (the adults aka parents) already had our satisfaction from eating at Sonya’s and taking gazillions of pictures (Sonya’s has very nice patio furniture), we decided to give in.

My kids immensely enjoyed themselves. In fact, it was Martha who enjoyed it the most, she wasn’t even scared of being left alone on the horse with only the horse caretaker leading the horse on.

She even cried when it was time to let her Kuya ride the horse. Matthew wanted to ride alone because the seat was good for only one and it hurt his you-know sharing with his little sister.

Martha would cry, “Mommy, gusto pa Martha horsey eh.”
We had to tell her the horsey needs to sleep in which she said, “Horsey tired na eh, goodnight horsey!”

For the record, the mommies and daddies were trying to avoid the sun which was impossible. We smelled like horses after I can tell (ehem, smell) but the pictures were like straight from an outing in the 80’s.

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We went to Manila last Sunday to attend two parties of online friends’ kids – Asher’s 1st Birthday party, Sophia’s 4th Birthday Party and Mateo’s Christening. The kids had a lot of fun. It was their first time attend parties of that caliber *wink* so they were so amazed. Matthew had a blast joining games (he was so bitin of course). Martha was just content walking and walking and eating ice cream. She was so happy with her loots too. You know my kids, give her ice cream and balloons and she is a happy kid. Give her an ANIMAL balloon and she is in heaven.

Too many pictures!! I feel so lazy to share them here.

We were so tired after. If only there were free hotel rooms we can stay in we would not go home straight to Cavite after the parties. Edil told me I better learn how to drive soon

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Someone needs to recommend a very effective art storage system to me. With two kids who love to draw and me who loves to collect junk (ehem, their work – call me the sentimental Mommy), I need art storage containers that 1) will keep them neat and tidy and organized, 2) will allow me to locate a specific artwork from year 20—and so. I have all the artwork of Matthew and with Martha starting to get interested in art, I better have the system ready for collating art work. Of course, at this time, Martha is more interested in having YOU draw something for HER and not the other way around. Not that she wants you to draw flowers and butterflies, which are so easy to draw (from someone like who still draws stick figures for people). No, she wants you to draw zebras, giraffes, pigs, lions, tigers and all sorts of living creatures that I have a hard time drawing.

I treat my kids’ work like those art pieces you see in museums and galleries. Did you know that museums pay a huge amount of money to be able to store their art pieces safely and effectively. They need vaulted storage, and even storage that has adjustable temperatures! Security is a must too!

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The mere savings I have been collecting since December will all go to the betterment of my teeth. Why did I ever become a nurse? I should have become a dentist and get thousands with a single tooth extraction! (Insert sarcasm here). OR I should have encouraged Edil when, during his second year of college in Mechanical Engineering, he told me he wanted to drop out and pursue Dentistry instead.

Oh well, an online friend told me once when I lamented how many expenses we have these days that extra projects’ pay go to them that it simply is the law of attraction. More money coming in equals to more expenses. I hope we don’t go over the “more expenses” part. It is a blessing I don’t have credit card debt anymore or else I’m sure a Collection Agency will be calling me everyday.

Anyway, the Big Man Up There never left me before and with every problem, He always miraculously gives me solutions I would have never thought of. So…thank You. You have been with me all the way, twenty eight years and counting.

I will be extremely busy next week – with Matthew’s Foundation Day Activities and my birthday and expecting some nice loots from the US So I will see you when I see you

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While I have two kids already, most of my friends are either TTC (trying to conceive), pregnant, or are trying hard not to get to pregnant. They either belong to “cant wait to have another baby” or “I don’t want to have a baby YET” category. We all have one thing in common though: We plan. While pills are becomingly increasingly popular for birth control, most of my friends (and I) go the natural way: the Rhythm method or the Natural Planning way. A friend even has a bead bracelet depicting her cycle to help her keep track of her fertile days.

If you are most of the time online (like me), you can use the ovulation calendar at Gurgle.com to predict your fertile days. You just need to input when your last monthly period started and how long your cycle usually lasts and they will predict when you’re most fertile over the next twelve months.

They even have a contest running for a whole year supply of Comfort Pure fabric conditioner! If you want to enter, just click here.

As for us, we don’t have any plans of adding a third baby in the near future. We still have a lot of plans and we wouldn’t be able to financially support three kids with me not working and the two kids going to school next year (argh!!!!) so yes, no baby # 3 yet.

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We were talking about some huge life changes we did this year for our family and so far, hands down, the biggest change was moving houses. It didn’t only signify that we were changing houses, but we were moving out on our own, to another city, and a whole new environment. To say it was a huge life risk was an understatement. However, we would not change it for anything. We are grateful that our kids took the changes so positively and they don’t even crave for the materialism the city has to offer (going to the mall everyday, getting take-out fastfood every chance they can get). We haven’t sacrificed my son’s education as his school is really good and he is thriving. We really are grateful that we have survived the crucial six months. Maybe the hardest part was not having Edil during the six months at home but here comes the good news:

Edil has been transferred to our area effective January 1. So that means he will be staying at home beginning today . Christmas wish No.1 fulfilled. I actually have known since November, but couldn’t blog about or tell anyone for fear of jinxing it, and not until I read the transfer paper will I believe it, so there

We have huge plans for next year but we need to take care of a pressing issue first. Once we solve that, I think we will be good to go to Life Plan No. 2

Perhaps, moving was really our exodus – our flight to change. And though we didn’t have an easy move, it was good for us in a way since Edil and I were forced to work together. Here, where moving vans and moving services do not exist, we were a two-man (woman) team packing, moving and unpacking. With two kids in tow at the car all the time. It’s good we practiced some moving tips with family with our kids first.

If we lived in the UK, things would have been different. We would have had it easier, as moving services are available, there is even a free moving planner tool I can use, as OC as I am with lists. There are even removal quotes you can inquire from the removal company – they refer to moving services sometimes as “man and van”.

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